If Aaron Judge has a teammate in the New York Yankees who knows what he's going through amidst a torrid stretch that saw Judge recently cross the 60 home run mark, it's Giancarlo Stanton. While Stanton has struggled through a myriad of injuries this season, it's fitting that he was the one who hit the walk-off grand slam in the same day Judge achieved his historic feat, five years after Stanton fell ever so short of the 60 mark back when he was with the Miami Marlins.
Giancarlo Stanton couldn't finish the job back in 2017, finishing with 59 home runs in his NL MVP campaign, so he knows just how difficult the pursuit of such a feat really is. And Stanton is in awe of just how focused Aaron Judge has remained amidst all the cacophonous hype that could distract even the most locked in of players.
“It's unreal. It's amazing to watch and like I said before, we get to see all the internal stuff and all the behind the scenes work,” Stanton, speaking with reporters after the Yankees' 9-8 victory against the Pittsburgh Pirates, said. “He hit 60 tonight and it's like nothing happened. He's got more work to do. That's the mindset and that's how it'll always be. It's just fun to be a part of.”
Aaron Judge still has 15 games left on the season to try and surpass the AL record for most homeruns in a season (61) set by Roger Maris in 1961. In fact, a chase for Barry Bonds' tainted record of 73 in a season shouldn't be ruled out at this point with just how hot Judge has been at the plate. It's also unfathomable that Judge is currently in the driver's seat for the AL Triple Crown, leading his league in home runs (60), runs batted in (128), and batting average (.316).
Difficult as it may seem to topple the two-way greatness of Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge has done more than his fair share to complicate the MVP debate, etching his name into the pantheons of greatest Yankee hitters of all time in the process. The race will go down to the wire, as it should, but Yankees fans will be hoping that Judge would join Stanton as a fellow MVP soon enough.